Learning Factory News

Hey everyone, and welcome to Steam Summer Sale! It's the first one for Learning Factory, so we thought we might as well let you know what's changed since the game emerged to Early Release this February:

[h2]What's New, Pussycat?[/h2]

• Freeplay Mode: a new game mode where you can set up a map of your dreams and build the factory of your dreams on it. You can share it with friends, too!
  
• Scenario Mode: Turn on or off specific researchers, cats, resources and goods, design your own map and then try and play it without bursting into tears (of joy? of despair? depends on you!)
  
• Mini-map: everyone loves mini-maps! But for those who don't, we've also added a maxi-map (available upon clicking on mini-map)
  
• Procedurally generated cat scientists: head to the Tavern and hire all kinds of whacko cat scientists to invent stuff for you! Featuring Lev Nikolaevich, Cozy Osbourne, Ms Whiskers and many others!
  
• Hoverboard (oh yeah!): Wroooooooom! As seen in the movies!
  
• Terraforming: dig out chunks of terrain and place it somewhere else! Plant some plants! Root out some roots! Hedge yourself with hedges! Become the architect of Mars!
  
• New buildings and Machine Learning Models: tremble before the power of the almighty Neural Networks and Deep Neural Networks! With their might, you'll be able to research all kinds of buildings, including the amazing 'Brosnan' Pier!
  
• New animations, new graphics, bug fixes, performance optimization and sooooooo much more stuff to make you comfy, so you could concentrate on building factories and making cats happy!
  

[h2]Catty Anniversary![/h2]
It's been a year since we've first presented the game on Steam Festival and... we've been busy, here's with what:

[h3]June 2020[/h3]


[h3]June 2021[/h3]


[h2]Live-stream This Friday![/h2]
If the game's been sitting on your wishlist for a while, come to our bi-monthly live-stream this Friday, see the game in action, ask the questions and hesitate no more! This games is totally awesome (as told by our moms).

Join us on the Steam page, or head to Twitch or YouTube, we'll be monitoring all 3 chat rooms. So,

[h3]This Friday, June 25, 8am PST / 11am EST / 5pm CET![/h3]


We hope to see you there! And no matter what, please do not forget: we're NOT controlled by a group of overly intelligent cats, it's plain fake news! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.




[h2]How to Get More Involved[/h2]

Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!

Hey everyone!

Here's a suggestion for an easy watch/listen this Sunday: watch our pilot episode of developer diaries for Learning Factory EDU, which is being designed right now, to help teaching STEM through scientific method at middle schools:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Making a dedicated version of one of our games to fit into school curriculum is a mind-bending task for us, since we're not teachers. That's why we'll be inviting more educators who are using games in classrooms, to talk about how the future can be changed for the better in a playful way ˆ_ˆ

This time, our guest is Maria Plotkina from a friendly startup called Geek Teachers - this merry bunch of geeky educators is helping us design the curriculum for Learning Factory EDU.



We'll be releasing a new version of these diaries on a weekly basis. Subscribe to our newsletter to learn more about how games are revolutionizing education at this very moment! There's a podcast version of dev diaries there, too, if you prefer easy listening to easy watching :)

[h3]I want more games in education, how can I help?[/h3]
Do you know a teacher who's using games for education? Or maybe you are such a teacher yourself? Or maybe you are only about to experiment with games in your classroom?

In any of those cases, don't hesitate to contact us in the comments, via email, on Discord or whereever! We're actively looking for educators for play testing and more guests for our podcast!


[h2]How to Get More Involved[/h2]

Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!

This week brought a whole bunch of exciting news to KOTOVOD Learning Factory! Ever since our management, in their eternal wisdom, has announced that R&D dept. is hiring new staff, the sales have skyrocketed, and so has the amount of data.

This calls in for introducing more powerful ML Models. Please meet Neural Network Model machine along with its genius cousin, Deep Neural Network Model machine:





These cutting edge technologies will help improve the data science at the Factory, for better customer service (and more money to fund our research!)

As if it wasn't enough, the first seeds of the I.L.L.U.M.I.N.A.T.I. brand new Hedges were delivered on Mars! These marvels of genetic engineering magically stop growing at some point, which not only makes them perfect decorations, but also helps withhold the legendary aggressive growth of Martian plants.

As if that wasn't enough too, KOTOVOD engineers now have access to advanced tools for factory building, which will allow more precision in designing your Learning Factories.

What are you waiting for, engineers? Go build some awesome stuff! We'll be in touch.

[h2]Version 0.9.27 Released[/h2]

• Scenario editor: you can now create all kinds of maps with different parameters
  
• Neural Networks! A brand new machine learning model in the game. It helps optimize the prices in stores, like Regressions do, but does so in a way more efficient way. Also, they look gorgeous
  
• Hedges: a new plant to help make your Factory look nicer and/or withhold the aggressive grows of other Martian plants. Why don't hedges grow and multiply though? That's a mystery, let us know if you have any ideas!
  
• Bug fixes
  
• EPIC HUGE MONSTROUS PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZAAAAAAAATION (the devs were very deliberate about writing it this way)
  
• And a brand new achievement!
  

[h2]How to Get More Involved[/h2]

Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!

Friday is upon us! Kick back, tune up to our channels and let's enjoy some Learning Factory!

We'll be going live in about an hour: 8am PST / 11am EST / 5pm CET! Join us on Twitch, YouTube and on our Steam page.

See you soon!


[h2]How to Get More Involved[/h2]

Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!

[h2]Share Your Gameplay and Become Part of KOTOVOD History[/h2]
Learning Factory needs your help! Record a 10 or more minutes of you playing the game, share a video using any way you see fit, write your name into Learning Factory credits and get a promo cat! Make history here

Wow, what a week, so many news! But first, let's get the reuglar things out of the way:

[h2]Hotfix 0.9.26 Released[/h2]

1. Bug fixes
   
2. Performance optimization
   
3. Added ability to lock buildings, preventing accidental removal
   

[h2]Live stream with devs this Friday[/h2]
We'll post a separate announcement tomorrow, but you know the drill: 8am PST / 11am EST / 5pm CET! On Twitch, YouTube and on our Steam page. Can't wait to see you there!



[h2]Presenting Learning Factory EDU[/h2]
Learning Factory has been named one of the winners of the STEM Your Game Challenge, organized by leading non-profit gaming organization Games For Change.

Which, in short, means one big thing: we will be developing a special educational version of our game, tailored to help teaching STEM through the power of scientific method, which is, in the words of great physicist Richard Feynman, “a key to science”.

[h3]What is Learning Factory EDU?[/h3]

• Modified, lightweight version of the main game, in which players/learners must find out, what cats really want;
  
• Includes 10 pre-made lessons, based on an innovative educational method “Phenomenon-based learning” which is validated by Finnish schools;
  
• Aims to teach children about production, automation, data, and the essence of scientific approach for solving problems;
  
• Co-designed with teachers (see below);
  
• Comes with a lesson-planning guide for teachers and a workbook for learners;
  
• It will be totally free

If you happen to be an educator yourself, or if you know a teacher who can use some new (fun and free) educational tool, please subscribe to our blog and newsletter or contact us in any other way: we're looking for as much feedack as possible, to make a really quality educational game!

We'll post more details about Learning Factory EDU in the upcoming weeks. And naturally, it will benefit the main game as well ;) Stay tuned to learn, how!


[h2]How to Get More Involved[/h2]

Going to Early Access is but the first step to glory (and eternal cat happiness). Wanna be part of what happens next? Head to this blog post and learn how to help make the game even more awesome!

[h2]Share Your Gameplay and Become Part of KOTOVOD History[/h2]
Learning Factory needs your help! Record a 10 or more minutes of you playing the game, share a video using any way you see fit, write your name into Learning Factory credits and get a promo cat! Make history here